The Summit County Board of Elections wants to know what's up with a 2-page spread that ran in Saturday's edition of the Akron Beacon Journal.
It's called "City Council News" and features items that mainly tout the accomplishments of the current city council and administration, but stops short of telling people who deserves their vote.
The advertisement does encourage people to vote a certain way on certain issues.
The problem, according to the Summit County Board of Elections, is transparency.
Although the layout looks nothing like that of the Beacon Journal, some people can't tell if it's an advertisement or news. More importantly, the board wants to know who authorized the whole things and who is paying for it.
"Then we can have this information and make a decision on what to do," said Republican Board Member Alex Arshinkoff.
The "information" he's seeking is any documentation that answers the questions.
Arshinkoff made the motion to subpoena records from various city employees. It was seconded by Democrat Wayne Jones and passed unanimously.
"We need to make sure that it was in accordance with what the current rules are and so far as how it was paid for," said Democrat Tim Gorbach.
There is an area at the bottom of the spread that resembles a masthead and it says City Council News is published by Akron City Council and produced by Highland PR.
